The New Brunswick
Irish Web Portal of the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick is the
most comprehensive website of Irish-related information ever assembled
in Canada

The teacher seemed to be spending a
lot of time with children from
other grades while I waited for her to check my long division.

As
the sun beamed in, my eyes wandered over to the small cupboard with
glass doors that held our library in the one-room school. I had read
every book. How I wished I could go to a real library and look at
several shelves of books.

I began to fantasize that I was Orphan
Annie. Daddy Warbucks had driven me to the library in his limousine.
Eight-foot tall Punjab was carrying the big armful of books I had
chosen when reality hit. The teacher was standing at my desk sternly
requesting I redo my arithmetic. It was messy.

Going to the
library is no longer just a fantasy. I have spent many happy hours
checking out books on shelves and reading microfilms.

But time
changes things. At the Saint John Free Public Library the family
history researcher can now sit at one of its computers and connect by
Internet to the library version of ancestry.com, which has one of the
most significant genealogical collections available today. Ancestry.com
has unparallelled coverage of the United States and the United Kingdom,
including census, vitals, church, court and immigration records, as
well as record collections from Canada and other areas. This collection
has thousands of databases and billions of names.

Quaestio
is a free
online question-and-answer service designed to answer brief, factual
questions or suggest other sources for information.

If you don't
have a library card
for a New Brunswick library, I suggest you get one. By so
doing, the door to electronic
resources - databases available online
that cover a number of subjects - opens to you, without the need to
leave your home computer.

**

If you are
researching your Irish
roots, the New
Brunswick Irish Web Portal is a wonderful addition to
the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick website at www.gnb.ca/archives.
It is the most comprehensive website of
Irish-related information ever assembled in Canada.

The databases consist of:

1) Saint
John Almshouse Records with Admission Registers from
1843-1897
and the Saint John Almshouse Admission Registers, 1843-1884 for
individuals admitted to the Alms and Work House, the Emigrant
Infirmary, and the St. John Emigrant Orphan Asylum are available for
viewing through searching or browsing a name index of 33,907 entries
and by browsing the 716 digitized register pages on which these entries
appear.

3) Fitzwilliam
Estate Emigration Books 1847-1856: In the years between 1847
and
1856
nearly 6,000 "surplus" or unviable tenants from the Fitzwilliam Estate,
County Wicklow, Ireland, were sent across the Atlantic to Canada in
reaction to the Potato famine. Three hundred and eighty-three of these
tenants were sent to St. Andrews on the Star, their voyage funded by
their landlord.

5) Immigrant
letters: Life after emigration
is best attested to through the words of those who experienced its
upheaval in the 12,121 pages. These transcribed materials have also
been made available through full text search and indexed by subject and
place.

7) Passenger
lists: All extant passenger lists located at the Provincial
Archives of New Brunswick have been indexed and digitized for this
project by name, vessel and year. The database of immigrants contains
10,412 entries, and this only covers 1816 to 1838. Sadly, this
represents only about 135 lists, a small portion of all of the
immigrants to New Brunswick.

8) Teachers
Petitions Database
(1816-1858). Irish immigrants in New Brunswick taught in one-third of
New Brunswick schools by the mid-19th century, the majority quickly
becoming licensed teachers shortly after their arrival and remaining in
the profession. The 509 Irish teachers' petitions digitized for this
project consist of 1,573 pages of requests for licences or payment for
teaching services (containing biographical information including names,
country of birth, education, teaching experience and church
affiliation), samples of handwriting and certificates from local school
trustees or clergymen verifying the character and abilities of the
petitioner.

9) New
Brunswick
Census Irish Records: In 1851 and
1861 New Brunswick conducted full censuses with these returns
enumerated the birthplace of immigrants living in New Brunswick,
identifying those born in England, Scotland, Ireland, "other British
possessions" and "other countries" along with their date of entry.

To
give us a feel for Irish famine migration to New Brunswick, 1845-1852,
visit "In
the Wake of Dark Passage"
which gives a glimpse of the
cultural, political, religious and ethnic circumstances behind one of
the greatest natural calamity of the 19th century - An Gorta Mor, the
Great Irish Famine of the 1840s. The exhibition exposes, through 11
galleries, life in Ireland at the time of the Irish Famine, their
journey across the Atlantic and the arrival in New Brunswick. The story
is told through archival and graphic documents.

When I think of
all the hours I have spent over the years, sitting in front of
microfilm readers with eyes burning out of my head, neck hurting and
back aching, I marvel at the changes in technology that have taken
place. Now, while at home, with the click of the mouse, I can access,
among other things, the New Brunswick Irish Web Portal which is the
proverbial crock of gold filled with genealogical information on the
Irish.

Query 1735Mawhinney: I am seeking the
relationship
of the grandson of Adam Mawhinney of Pennsylvania, U.S., to the
Mawhinneys, he visited in the late 1800s in Maces Bay, Charlotte
County, New Brunswick. Also I would like information on the parents,
siblings, spouse and children of Johnson Mawhinney who probably lived
in Lepreau and died in 1869 and is buried in the Lepreau Cemetery.

Email: gingle@bellaliant.net

Query 1736Shephers
- Longstaff: Seeking information on Edmund C. Shephers and wife
Mary E.
Longstaff, who were married in Woodstock, New Brunswick, in 1831.

Email Donna Sweet: dsfelix1@hotmail.com

Query 1737Hatfield
- Wetmore: Seeking parents and siblings of Mary Hatfield born
circa
1808, married in 1829 in New Brunswick to Weeden Fowler Wetmore
(1802-1889). Both are possibly buried in Hatfield Point Cemetery in
Kings County, New Brunswick. I have not been successful in being able
to get details on Mary or her line. Does anyone have a lead for me?

Nancy Hutchinson, Monticello, Maine
Email hutch2@pioneercable.net

Query 1738Cook
- Churchill: Daniel Cook, born 1760, was a UE Loyalist and
granted land
(twice) in Saint John. Need proof his wife was Lydia Churchill, a
marriage date for them, confirmation of their son, Daniel Cook's birth
in 1798, George in 1800 and possibly Lydia's death and a sale of his
two land grants. His other children were born in Niagara and Lincoln
areas of Ontario - John Courcer in 1802, Moses in 1804, Isaac in 1809,
Anna in 1811 and Elizabeth in 1817. What is confusing for me, is that
in his will, he leaves behind a wife Elizabeth and his children, but I
can't find a death for Lydia or a marriage to Elizabeth. Any help that
could be provided would be greatly appreciated.

Ruby M. Cusack is a genealogy buff
living in New Brunswick, Canada. Send your New Brunswick genealogical
queries to her at: rmcusack@nbnet.nb.ca. Please put "Query"
followed by the surnames in your query as the subject. For more
information on submitting queries, visit http://www.rubycusack.com/Query-Instructions.html

Ruby contributes a
"Family
History" column to the Telegraph-Journal on the third Saturday of the
month.